Chapter Two

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever."

― George Orwell

"Henry!" Said Henry's mother. "It's time for school."

Henry left his bedroom and sat on the couch. Mother turned the TV to educational mode.

"Welcome to history class." Exclaimed the digital teacher. "Today we're going to talk about World War 2. There was a disagreement about 145 years ago."

That was something that always annoyed Henry. Whenever the teacher talked about something that happened a specific number of years ago it would switch to a robotic voice because they would change the number every year.

"About thirty countries were involved in the war." The teacher explained. "It ended 139 years ago."

The reason the robotic voice scared Henry so much was because it was similar to the voice the Security-bots had. The Security-bots were built in 2029 to make sure no one violated the lockup laws. If they did try to escape, they would be corrected.

But Henry feared the bots because when he was young, his father broke the law and was corrected immediately. "You have been deemed non-essential." Henry heard from beyond his walls. Henry never saw his father again.

"And that's all you need to know about the second world war." The simulated teacher said. "Tomorrow we'll talk about the Vietnam war."

As the time passed, Henry did his other classes: English, Science, Math, Gender Studies, Music, Art, and Physical Education.

"Henry, can you turn that down?" Mother asked. "I'm on the phone with the Ministry of Marriage. They've selected a new husband for me and they're about to give him his Safety Suit so he can be escorted to our house."

"Okay, Mom." Henry replied. Henry looked over at the calendar and then at his watch.

"Hey Mom." Henry whispered because his mom was on the phone. "It's almost time to vote."

"Okay, goodbye." Mother said as she hung up. "I forgot today was Election Day."

Mother sat down at her desk, turned on her computer, and went to Vote.gov. Henry always enjoyed Election Day. The only thing Henry knew about the past was that you used to have to be 18 to vote. Now you had to be 10 to vote, so Henry was pretty experienced. Except the people he voted for never seem to win. "Probably just a coincidence." Henry thought.